How To Ruin a Promising Movie

Inside Man (2.5/5 stars)

I heard of this movie and it looked so promising. Directed by Spike Lee, who has won my personal best picture of the year twice (Do The Right Thing, and Malcom X), and starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Christopher Plummer, it was looking pretty good. Then I saw the reviews: 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, a ridiculously good score.

I was, however, severely disappointed. This was some of the most run-of-the-mill garbage I have seen in a long time. It tries so hard to be different than other movies like it, but fails. It tries so hard to surprise you, but again, fails. Finally, the movitations behind the characters are either completely absent or don't make sense put together, all of which contribute to feeling that you've seen something you would've much rather caught on HBO and asking, "Can I please have my ten dollars back?"

So how does such a promising movie go bad? An absolutely horrible screenplay, written by someone who probably couldn't even write a phoned-in episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. Everything that can be is very contrived, everything that tries to be a plot twist is blatantly shoved in your face while trying (and failing) to be subtle about it (hint: the biggest twist of the movie is ruined in the first scene), and absolutely no character development is to be seen. The only good things here are Spike Lee's direction, which keeps up the pace and makes it relatively interesting throughout despite the predictability, and Clive Owen's performance.

I can't reveal about why I feel this way about the movie without giving it away, but trust me, wait for rental, or HBO, or don't see it at all.